


Make the Night a Little Less Loud

by schneefink



Category: The Maze Runner (2014)
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-22
Updated: 2014-12-22
Packaged: 2018-03-02 21:12:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2826272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/schneefink/pseuds/schneefink
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas and Minho spend a night in the Maze together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Make the Night a Little Less Loud

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yabamena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yabamena/gifts).



> Many thanks to K. for beta-reading.

The groaning sounds of the walls closing and the shrieks of the Griever ring in Minho's ears over his own screams of Thomas' name. He can see the panic in Thomas' eyes and all he can think is, "He's not going to make it, he's not going to make it, he's not…" 

Thomas' hand is out. Minho grabs it and pulls as hard as he can. Thomas shouts in pain, but he jerks forward and out of the gap, he makes it through. They fall to the ground and when Minho looks up he stares right at the Griever's face, its claws coming for him and he tries to scramble back - 

The stone walls close. There's a terrible screeching sound as the Griever is crushed to death. 

Minho distantly notices that his heart is racing. His hands are shaking. Thomas, who fell on top of him, is gasping for breath, his eyes staring unseeing at the ground.

"You killed a Griever," Minho gets out. He laughs in disbelief. "You killed a Griever!" 

"Yeah, well, I figured it was him or me," Thomas says weakly. He rolls to his knees, his hands on the ground because he looks like he'd fall over otherwise. "Was that the only one?"

"No." Minho gets up slowly and looks around. His legs feel jittery. He tries to listen to the Maze, to filter out their heavy breaths and the wind and the stones and find if there's something else out there. "But we're alone for now."

"Good," Thomas says. He crawls the two steps over to the wall and sits down heavily. 

Minho hesitates. They're in the Maze, and his instincts scream at him to keep moving, to keep running. But there's no way out and no safe place to be. They might as well stay here for a few moments.

He sits down next to Thomas. If he turns his head to the right he can see the remains of the dead Griever. 

"You're crazy, you know that?" he says, looking at Thomas.

Thomas just shrugs. "Maybe." He's carefully moving his right foot in small circles. Minho is sure he has bruises all over. 

They sit together in silence for a few minutes. Minho wonders if Thomas managed to secure Alby, but he doesn't want to ask.

"How many hours do we have left?" Thomas asks eventually.

"Four, maybe five," Minho estimates. 

"So we're halfway through soon. At least that's something."

"You honestly think we're going to get out of here," Minho realizes. He shifts so he can see Thomas better.

"Yeah," Thomas says simply. "You remember where we left Alby, right?"

So Alby is as safe as possible for the moment. "Of course," Minho says. He already calculated a route how best to get back to Alby, and then back to the Glade, with that passage closed. It's calming to run through all the paths nearby in his head. It gives him the illusion that he knows where to go.

"You realize nobody's ever done that before," he says, just to make conversation.

"Killed a Griever? Maybe they have, but didn't make it out again after."

"We would have found it in the morning," Minho disagrees.

"You can't run the whole Maze every day. Or can you?" Thomas says, and he sounds honestly curious.

Minho snorts. "No. Maybe if we had ten more Runners. And there are always some sections closed."

"What do you see from up there by day?" Thomas nods toward the wall in front of them. "Can you see outside?"

"The Outer Walls are too high and smooth, you can't climb them. A couple of guys tried to build a ladder, twice, but it took them too long and they didn't make it back." He sees that Thomas wants to say something and adds, "They didn't make it out. We found their things later." 

Thomas nods and looks down again. 

Thomas' drive reminds Minho of Chris, the first guy who came up with the idea of a ladder. Chris was angry all the time, angry at the creators and at the guys who told him it wouldn't work and at the world in general. Minho sometimes thought Chris would still have been angry outside of the Maze. Alby suggested that Chris become a Runner to at least channel his aggression, and it seemed to work for a while. But once Chris saw the Outer Walls he became obsessed with climbing them. He roped three other guys into his project and they worked on it for weeks, not listening to any warnings. They'd all hoped, but nobody was really surprised when they found their remains. The Grievers had even left some bodyparts that time, as if they were laughing about their attempt.

"Do you think it's safer to move?" Thomas asks, looking around. 

"We can find a place that gives us more options to run," Minho suggests. He stands up slowly. "Not that it'll matter much if another Griever finds us."

"We'll just have to do it again," Thomas says. He lifts a corner of his mouth as if to pretend he's joking, but it's obvious that he's serious.

Crazy. Minho shakes his head. But it'd also been brilliant. "I know roughly which walls are going to change, but not when. Finding one that was just closing was pure luck."

Thomas nods in acknowledgement. He doesn't seem less determined than before. "Can you find us a place with a lot of vines? I think they're hunting more on sight than sound. And it can't hurt, can it?"

Minho shakes his head and tries to think of a place. There's a small plateau not too far away with a lot of vines. It should give them as much warning as possible if another Griever comes. They'll also hear the screams better, but they'll just have to deal. "This way," he says and starts walking. "There should be some water over there too."

Thomas falls into step next to him. "I'm glad I ate before sundown, or I'd be gnawing at the leaves."

"Can't hurt," Minho shrugs. "They're not poisonous. Not very nutritious either, of course."

Thomas laughs briefly. "Good to know." He looks around as if trying to memorize the way despite the fact that he knows he's hopelessly lost. "At least I'm trapped in here with an expert."

"At least I'm trapped in here with a crazy person," Minho says drily.

Thomas grins.

Minho decides that he likes him. He'd make a good Runner. Minho doesn't want the same thing that happened to Chris and so many others to happen to Thomas too, but he suspects that discouraging him will be very difficult. 

Thomas already killed a Griever, he reminds himself. He was stupid enough to run into the Maze at dusk, he stayed back to help Alby, and maybe he's right and they'll actually survive the night. If anyone has a chance to find a way out, it's probably Thomas. 

Minho really hopes that's true.


End file.
